As has been discussed already, the folks who brought us the scum-laden Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are gearing up once again to attack Barack Obama. The central figure in all of this is, once again, "historian" Jerome R. Corsi, PhD, who's making the rounds on the talk circuit these days. It's just a matter of time, in my opinion, before we start seeing their influence in the overall campaign discourse, most likely through heavily funded television buys.
Since the Swift Boat Veterans, I've read and heard innumerable analyses of what the Kerry camp did wrong or should have done differently, and I'm afraid that the Obama campaign's attempt to play above the fray might leave the campaign, and candidacy, vulnerable to another Corsi-led sleazefest.
Obama's ongoing challenge in this campaign has been, and will continue to be, to attempt to set the dialogue first, and then underscore what he represents with enough frequency and authority to overcome the clamor from the other side. After all, the Swift Boat folks didn't have two facts to rub together, but they proved that the Rove MO (truth = repitition * fabrication) remains effective.
But then again, what can the Obama camp do in any direct or immediate way to curb the lies of a loony who just happens to sell a lot of books? I've been thinking about this for the past few days and haven't come up with any easy answers, but it seems to me the pushback against Corsi could legitimately come from members of the electorate - that is, us - who are sick and tired of having our political process hijacked by sleazebags throwing lies indiscriminately until something sticks.
Dr. Corsi seems to have gone to some substantial amount of effort to maintain his own privacy. For some as politically active as he has been, it's strange that his name doesn't appear in the FEC database, either as a 529 contributor, campaign contributor, or even as a candidate (he was a candidate for the Constitution Party's nomination for president until he withdrew from the race last year). Of course, and I note this with amusement, this apparent desire for obscurity when it suits him hasn't apparently been communicated to the good folks at whitepages.
There's part of me that wouldn't mind giving up my summer vacation to spend a week holding a picket sign in suburban New Jersey.